End closures for boxes and other articles



1963 s. AKE EHRLUND 3,112,860

END CLOSURES FOR BOXES AND OTHER ARTICLES Filed Oct. 20, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 3, 1963 s. AKE EHRLUND 3,

END CLOSURES FOR BOXES AND OTHER ARTICLES Filed Oct. 20, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United tates Patent 3,112,860 END CLOSURES FOR BOXES AND OTHER ARTICLES Stig Ake Ehrlund, Stockholm-Vallinghy, Sweden, assignor to AB Alllen & Akerlund Forpackning, Halmstad,

Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Filed Oct. 20, 1961, Ser. No. 146,544 Claims priority, application Sweden Oct. 24, 196i Claims. (Cl. 229-87) This invention relates to wrappers for articles of the kind in which the interior surface of the wrapper is at least partly coated with a sealing material and a joint of the wrapper is provided by securing marginal coated portions of the wrapper in face to face relation to provide a fin that may then be folded flat against the package.

Such a wrapper is hereinafter referred to as a wrapper of the kind described.

Suitable sealing materials are latex and a heat scalable coating, while the wrapper may be paper, transparent film material, foil, etc.

Wrappers that include a fin as above referred to are particularly useful when wrapping an article to render it moisture-proof because in that case if, for example, a joint in the wrapper is made by securing together overlapping margins by heat sealing them together, the pressure of the heat sealing member is caused to bear against the article and if the latter is resilient then an imperfect joint may be provided.

With a finned joint however, considerable pressure and heat can conveniently be applied to provide a moistureproof joint. The same applies of course to a latex joint.

Finned wrappers have the drawback that the fin and subsequent folds may not be securely held against the package because the fin presents an outer (uncoated) surface to subsequent portions of the wrapper that are folded down on to it and securing of the fin and any other flaps of the wrapper may involve additional securing material on the outside of the wrapper which requires a separate operation that is both costly and inconvenient.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a finned Wrapper in which the above disadvantage is avoided.

The present invention consists in a wrapper of the kind described in which the outer marginal portion of the flattened fin is gapped so as to expose a portion of the inte rior coated surface to that of a subsequently folded portion of the wrapper whereby the folds of the wrapper may be secured together to close the package and maintain the fin flat against it.

The article to be wrapped may be of parallelepiped shape with the wrapper surrounding it in the form of a sleeve having overlapping ends and portions of the Wrapper projecting beyond an end of the article said portions being folded and secured together to close the package.

The fin may extend across the projections of the wrapper into corner tucks thereof, said fin being gapped at each tuck and for a short distance along the end of the article whereby when the fin has been folded fiat on to the end of the article the corner tucks are folded to overlap the fin so that the exposed surfaces are brought face to face and may be secured together to close the package.

The fin may extend along the article and into one of the projecting portions of the Wrapper said fin being gapped where it extends into said projecting portion whereby, when the fin has been folded fiat and the gapped portion bent on to the end of the article, the opposite projection of the wrapper may be folded to overlap the gap so that the exposed surfaces are brought face to face and may be secured together.

Two embodiments of the present invention are dia- Tree grammatically indicated in the accompanying drawings which all show a wrapper being applied to a parallelepiped shaped article, and the wrapper in each case projects beyond an end of the article such projecting portions being folded and secured together to close the package.

In the drawings,

FIGS. 1 to 4 illustrate a wrapper in which the fin extends across the projections into corner tucks thereof, said drawings showing the wrapper in progressive stages of folding.

FIGS. 5 to 8 show a wrapper in which the fin extends along the article and into one of the projecting portions of the wrapper. It will be appreciated that the wrapper in these drawings is closed in a similar manner at the other end of the article (not shown).

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, the Wrapper 1, which is coated on its inner surface with heat scalable material, is wrapped around the article 2 in the form of a sleeve of rectangular cross-section and the ends overlap at 3 and are secured together by heat and pressure.

Projecting portions 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the wrapper are adapted to be folded and secured together to close the package.

As will be seen gaps 8 and 9 are cut from the portions 5, 7 of the wrapper that provide corner tucks when the wrapper is folded, and these are continued as gaps 1t), 11 for a short distance along the portion of the fin that lies along the end of the article.

The projecting portions 4 to 7 are then gripped firmly between heated pressure bars to form a fin (FIG. 2), this fin comprising corner tucks 13, 14 and intermediate portion 15.

The fin 13 to 15 is then folded flat on to the end of the article as shown in FIG. 3 so that surfaces 16, 17 of the heat sealable coating are exposed.

The corner tucks 13, 14 are then folded to overlap the intermediate portion 15 of the fin, so that the exposed surfaces 16, 17 are folded in half and the two halves are brought face to face. Heat and pressure is then applied to the outside surfaces of the corner tucks 13, 14 to secure the exposed surfaces 16, 17 together to close the package.

Referring to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5 to 7. This again shows a wrapper surrounding an article in the form of a sleeve having overlapping ends but portions of the sleeve in this case are folded back marginally at 19, 20 to provide the fin. Thus said marginal portions 19, 20 are brought face to face so that their inner coated surfaces may be secured together to provide the fin 19, 20.

The fin extends into one of the projecting portions 22 of the Wrapper and it is folded flat so that it extends along the article 21 into said projecting portion 22.

The end of the marginal portion 19, that constitutes the outer thickness of the fin, is gapped at 23 so as to expose the inner coated surface of the Wrapper at that position.

The projection 22 with the portion of the fin 19, 20 that overlaps it is then bent on to the end 24 of the article (see FIG. 6) thereby providing corner tucks 25, 26 which are in turn bent in on to the end 24 of the article 21 (FIG. 7), whereupon the projection 27 opposite to the projection 22 is folded to overlap the gap 23 so that the exposed coated surfaces are brought face to face at the gap, said surfaces being secured together by heat and pressure.

It will be observed that the upper marginal portion 19 is wider than the under marginal portion 20, whose edge is shown by a chain line 27. This is because in some instances it may be desirable to secure the extra width of the portion 19 to the outside surface of the wrapper that it overlaps, for example with adhesive or by heat sealing.

It will also be seen that the portion of the marginal portion 20 exposed at the gap 23 is widened, beyond the width of the said margin 20 into a tab. This of course is to provide a larger area of coated wrapper to secure to the opposite projection 27.

What is claimed is:

1. A wrapper of foil material surrounding an article of substantially parallelepiped shape, the interior surface of said foil being at least partly coated with a sealing material, said foil having longitudinal edge portions secured in face to face relation to provide a sleeve having a longitudinal fin formed by said edge portions and being folded flat against said sleeve, said sleeve having end portions projecting beyond an end of said article, said end portions being folded and sealed to close the end of said sleeve, at least one of said end portions of the sleeve being formed with a cut to provide a gap exposing a portion of the interior coated surface of one of said end portions of the sleeve which is sealed to that end portion having said gap, and said exposed coated portion being utilized to secure a portion of the end of the sleeve subsequently folded to close the end of the sleeve and to maintain said longitudinal fin fiat against the sleeve.

2. A wrapper as claimed in claim 1, in which the marginal end portions of said sleeve at said end of the sleeve are sealed to form a transverse fin extending into corner tucks thereof, said transverse fin having gaps at each tuck and for a short distance along the end of the article whereby when said transverse fin has been folded fiat onto the end of the article the corner tucks are folded to overlap the transverse fin and the exposed surfaces thereby are brought face to face to be secured together closing the sleeve.

3. A Wrapper as claimed in claim 1, in which said longitudinal fin extends along the article and into one of the projecting end portions of the sleeve, said fin having gaps where it extends into said projecting end portion whereby, when said longitudinal fin has been folded fiat and the gapped portion bent over the end of the article, the opposite projecting end portion of the sleeve may be folded to overlap the gap so that the exposed surfaces are brought face to face to be secured together.

4. A wrapper as claimed in claim 3, in which the exposed surface of said longitudinal fin is widened into a tab to provide a larger area of coated foil to secure to the opposite projecting end portion of the sleeve.

5. A wrapper as claimed in claim 3, in which the upper marginal portion of said longitudinal fin is wider than the under marginal portion so that the extra Width of said upper portion may be secured to the outside surface of the sleeve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,066,495 Swift Jan. 5, 1937 2,128,275 Vogel Aug. 30, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 647,166 Great Britain Dec. 6, 1950 844,716 Great Britain Aug. 17, 1960 

1. A WRAPPER OF FOIL MATERIAL SURROUNDING AN ARTICLE OF SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLELEPIPED SHAPE, THE INTERIOR SURFACE OF SAID FOIL BEING AT LEAST PARTLY COATED WITH A SEALING MATERIAL, SAID FOIL HAVING LONGITUDINAL EDGE PORTIONS SECURED IN FACE TO FACE RELATION TO PROVIDE A SLEEVE HAVING A LONGITUDINAL FIN FORMED BY SAID EDGE PORTIONS AND BEING FOLDED FLAT AGAINST SAID SLEEVE, SAID SLEEVE HAVING END PORTIONS PROJECTING BEYOND AN END OF SAID ARTICLE, SAID END PORTIONS BEING FOLDED AND SEALED TO CLOSE THE END OF SAID SLEEVE, AT LEAST ONE OF SAID END PORTIONS OF THE 